dave_p
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:You seem to cherry pick answers to your questions, both on that scrapper thread and here. Yes, brutes are on top, but for specific reasons as Werner pointed out (and you acknowledged). Plus, Bill's calcs were for ST damage, which a lot of scrappers are into because of AV/GM/Pylon soloing numbers, but aren't really indicative of a set's prowess (seriously, EM isn't going to make too many tops of lists other than for soloing hard targets, and do you really think ELM & Spines rank that low?). Many number crunchers will still take scrappers over brutes for various reasons.Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
I recently went on Scrapper area to ask what is the best scrapper. Right at the top of their boards is a sticky post. In reading it I discovered the best scrapper (for damage) is in fact a brute. So, with armors near tank level and damage better than scrappers it makes for a good build.
Speaking of cherry picking, you again miss the point: there's no need for tanks to hold all the aggro. If the brute wants to steal some and can survive it, more power to him. Literally, to his fury bar. Tanker doesn't need aggro, he just handles it.Quote:Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
Brutes are greedy for agro. Be warned, they are coming to a city near you, and they want your agro. A Tanker with taunt will still be able to hold the agro from a brute (sad panda), but a Scranker with no taunt will be left on the battles sidelines, unless he follows the brute around. Have a smashing good day.
I know, I know, why play tanks in the first place then? Because brutes and scrappers aren't as tough on the whole, nor do they control aggro as well, with or w/o Taunt. A well played tank on a decent team isn't there to take & hold all the aggro, but to shape the fight, and the fights to come. That means staying ahead of the team and aggro-stealing brutes & scrappers, and setting up the fight for the damage dealers. Yes, a brute, scrapper or controller can also do this job, but again, not as well. Sometimes, you need to stand firm in a +4, X8 spawn while your team catches up with you; tanks do that better than anyone, all w/o Taunt. Yes, there are exceptions which have been pointed out (mostly the STF).
If all you cared about was making sure no one shot at the squishies, bring a controller. -
Of all the ATs, this affects my tanks the least. My Shields tank will be fine. So at least on this forum, I say to you, "Meh". Now my controllers/defenders/blasters...
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Yeah, I guess I'd do an ITF w/a PuG--it's really not that big a deal. STFs... man, never again (yeah, there were a few bad ones, *shudders*).
And I totally get ppl who wanna do stuff like run PuG STFs--I know different ppl play different ways to have fun. I just don't think it's a valid reason to say X is bad because it can't do Y that well, and Y is a tiny, tiny subset of the game. -
Quote:Yup, auto hit. What I meant by "if you hit all 5" was if you get all 5 mobs into the radius. If you're constantly surrounded, that won't be a problem, but then, if I'm constantly surrounded, I don't bother w/Taunt, relying more on my aura, and reserve Taunt for farther away foes. For damage purposes, I doubt adding Taunt to your attack chain would improve your DPS any.Originally Posted by Berzerker_NA
I'm not mistaken, taunt is an auto hit power in PVE, so you always hit all 5 if there are five in the area of its effect. It's true you're only 67% likely to do damage any one time you fire it, but over the course of a lot of firings, you'll still average hitting one per shot.
Bit of a tangent, but that Zinger proc is really nice for other tanker attacks. I proc out my Jab/Punch combo for my SS to use on Rage crashes and the like, so it's good to have multiple damage procs available. -
You seem to be basing most of your arguments around the fact that Dark can't handle the STF w/o serious support. Um... so? Is that all you do w/your 50s? And PuG STFs? Why would anyone put themselves through that hell other than to prove you can? I mean, I suppose it's nice for your ego and all, but I'd rather run it w/my SG and/or competent friends of which I have a decent supply on my home server.
Same for ITFs--I just breezed through one w/nothing more than scrappers and a few support, though it wasn't some crappy PuG, which is why, again, I don't run them. If I *had* to tank a bad team though, I'd just bring over my Stony or Invul. On a barely competent team (i.e. doesn't actively suck), DA does *more* than well enough.
Bottom line, other than MoSTF runs, end game content in CoH just isn't that tough (Disclaimer: I haven't been on a Hami run in forever so don't know what those are like any more). Not to mention, this game isn't just about end game content. I got my DA's def up through IOs starting in his 30s which made him well nigh unkillable for that level range. DA does more than fine for 98% of this game, esp when well IO'ed out, which was, I believe your first point of contention--that DA doesn't IO well. -
Quote:1) "Incredibly poor damage" is a stretch, esp when talking about Fire, Elec or SS, esp in combination w/FA or SD (which is what many, if not most, scranker builds are). I can't see how any reasonable person would really think a SD/ELM tank is low damage, much less incredibly poor.Originally Posted by Berzerker_NA
You know, with the incredibly poor damage tanks do, something I've found in single player is that you can boost your total DPS quite a lot if you just take Taunt and slot the Perfect Zinger Psi Damage proc to it. It's only 20% likely to affect any one target it hits, but if you're surrounded by a whole bunch of enemies, you'll probably manage to damage at least one of them just about every time you fire your taunt off.
2) Taunt only hits 5. If you hit all 5, the odds of the proc going off at least once are pretty decent (around 67%), but hardly automatic. That said, if I'm taking Taunt, I'm usually 6-slotting w/Zinger for the set bonuses, so I end up w/the proc. -
We were asking for Ice Sword Circle for tanker Ice Melee for ages. They gave us Foot Stomp damage in FA instead. I'm reasonably happy with that.
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This brings up an interesting thought experiment: What would produce the widest discrepancies, vs. narrowest, assuming at least decently optimized tactics? Also assuming 1 of the tanks has to be common bet. the pairs...
Widest:
Stone/Stone x Stone/Stone
vs
Stone/Stone x Fire/Fire (blaster)
Narrowest:
SD/Fire x SD/Fire
vs
SD/Fire x Psi/Ice (blaster)
One tank in common, because you're substituting a teammate, not the whole pair. I'm guessing the 1st pairing (of pairs) would produce a good 5~6x difference, depending on the types of mobs you were fighting--higher if mostly minions and massed soft targets, lower if ST damage was more valuable, like bosses. The 2nd pairing might struggle to break even, really. -
Yeah, this is why I pretty much threw down all the numbers for analysis and let him draw his own conclusions. I didn't expect them to be correct. He also seems to be aggressively anti-empiricist, as if anyone who uses Mids' or any math doesn't also play the game. Whatever, my main point of posting in this rather silly thread is to make sure that some new tanker doesn't see some anecdotal hyberbole and roll up an Axe thinking he's going to be the next Spines/Fire-like farmer, not to convince the OP.
Once again, for everyone else: Axe is a very good set. It's a LOT of fun and fairly well balanced. It doesn't hold a candle to the AoE-centric tanker sets for AoE damage (nor should it), *much less* a scrapper set (I'm still reeling at the idea of comparing WA to Spin). -
Quote:Well, you can "prove" 16B in a single, static screenshot; more if you use a recording of the wents window and scroll across (42B-ish depending on how many slots you have). I guess technically, you can show 18B in a shot, but that last slot gets clipped so you might be able to obfuscate a 2M bid as a 2B bid. Anyway, 6~7 of those screenies and you're truly Ebil. And, we have to have some honor in our ebliness not to cheat and send inf to other toons for multiple screenshots, obv, otherwise you can just phtoshop those anyway.Originally Posted by Sailboat
But 100 billion? That'll require 50 characters just to hold, if you don't park it in WW slots or convert it to PVP IOs. How would you "prove" it, anyway? 50 screenshots will try any reader's patience, and how would we know it's not the same 2 billion being e-mailed around? It's almost too cumbersome to be interesting.
Of course, if you're looking to burn 100B inf, there's nothing more convincing (or easy) that showing a stack of 10 bids for 2B each, which means a guaranteed 18B burned. Mult by 7 slots and you have 142B in hand (+2B on your ebil self), and 126B in guaranteed burnage, cementing your Ebil legacy. Someone (else) do eet! -
Quote:I agree that a brand new player wouldn't know any of what you listed. Then again, I find it hard to believe believe someone w/an ounce of curiosity (and maybe a few pounds of greed) wouldn't stumble into the market and notice *some* disparities in pricing and wonder to him/herself, 'hey, can I actually make money here? Nah, that's gotta be too easy, right?' And off they go.Originally Posted by DrMike2000
I guess I was looking at this from the perspective of a new player, Dave. The specialist knowledge is below isn't really apparent form playing the game:
<snip>
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Quote:Yeah, I sorta agree with this. I see "farm" and I think for material stuff (inf, drops, merits, etc). I guess you can farm XP, but I'd just call it PL'ing too.Originally Posted by Sailboat
Dammit, PLing is a perfectly good and well-understood technical term, and it's shorter than farming. Say PLing if that's what you're talking about. Or are we just using "farming" to mean "guess what I'm thinking about now?"
Anyway, any combination of...
Primary: Fire, SD
Secondary: Fire, SS, Elec
...should work just fine. No, it won't beat a well built brute, scrapper or controller farm, but it'll get the job done. -
Even 10B isn't all that exclusive any more. Not like the old days of early 2009. Damn kids these days...
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I really never played red-side much (highest is like a 27 MM that I haven't touched in 2+ years), but I recently started up a SS/SD brute to bring over to blue side, and I plan on following up w/a Soldier. I read some of the guides and it looks like a Crab would suit my style the best--I love support roles that can also solo, and tend to favor AoE damage. I'm really surprised what these guys are capable of; I remember teaming w/Crabs on ITFs or LGTFs and wondering how the hell my Sonic defender had like 65% def all of a sudden.
Anyway, here's my build--I'm not entirely sure what I should be aiming towards, so I went w/a high ranged/AoE def build (good resists too) w/tons of AoE attacks and fast summoning pets. Any critiques would be appreciated.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
SoA Build: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Decim-Build%(31)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 2: Longfang -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(11)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Suppression -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dam%(9), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(9), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), Posi-Dmg/Rng(23)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(13), LkGmblr-Def(17)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 14: Venom Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(34), Posi-Dam%(37)
Level 16: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(19), Mrcl-Rcvry+(19), RgnTis-Regen+(23), Mrcl-Heal(46)
Level 20: Frag Grenade -- Posi-Dmg/Rchg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(21), Posi-Dam%(21), Posi-Acc/Dmg(34), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(25), EndMod-I(25)
Level 26: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(27), Zephyr-ResKB(27)
Level 28: Fortification -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam(29), Aegis-Psi/Status(29), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(40)
Level 30: Serum -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(31), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(34)
Level 32: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(33), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(33), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(33), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(37), GSFC-Build%(42)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(A), BldM'dt-Acc(36), BldM'dt-Acc/EndRdx(36), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), BldM'dt-Dmg/EndRdx(37), BldM'dt-Dmg(42)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(39), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(39), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(40), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(45)
Level 41: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(43), Zephyr-ResKB(46)
Level 44: School of Sharks -- Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(A), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Dmg/Rng(46)
Level 47: Bile Spray -- Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng(A), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(48), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(48), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(50), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
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How much specialized knowledge does it take to look at a market and figure out that you can make a profit? Do you really need an MBA (or a year spent in this forum) to see that (recipe + salvage + crafting fee + transaction fee) > (last 5 IOs' selling price) = easy money? Really? Sure, experience & knowledge lets you find the easiest and/or most profitable niches faster, and there are various pricing schemes that will slightly increase your margin, but you can still turn a healthy profit with just a tiny bit of research and bidding/selling everything using big round numbers.
And remember, my own personal definition of poverty is not being able to afford DO/SOs. It was a constant source of frustration for me and others waaaay early in the game before IOs and before the market, where 100K was a lot of cash, and 1M was like set for life. Just being able to escape that within a day or two, to be able to slot your toon w/all the DO/SOs you want when you hit 12/17/22, is a serious luxury. If people are crying that they can't afford their LotGs and Numina uniques and thus are poor, they don't know what poor is.
Oh, the argument that if everyone did this, no one would profit is a bit disingenuous. Fulmens points out correctly that in fact, everyone isn't doing this, and one person starting a trend will not cause everyone else to follow, this despite the fact that we've been giving away our secrets for like 2+ years now over here. More to the point, if you're assuming a perfectly rational market (one where everyone does the smart/selfish thing) there will still be room for profit for labor. My hunting down ingredients and going through the trouble of crafting generics is worth 300K to someone w/billions in the bank. If more fill my role, that margin will drop, but not go away, since that would also eliminate supply. Of course, at that point, my time would likely be better spent farming.
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Quote:Yup, +def is definitely the way to go w/resist-based sets. My Fire, Dark & Elec tanks/scrappers all have (will have) capped S/L defenses. Even getting them to the high 20s will make a marked difference in survivability. There's one regular poster who got his Dark tank's S/L & E/N defenses to softcap, a feat I haven't quite achieved yet, cuz I didn't quite like all the tradeoffs to get the E/N def that high, but I'm still working on it. Anyway, with decent resists across the board and a killer heal, adding good defenses makes Dark pretty much invincible for 98% of the game.Originally Posted by Talen_Lee
After a great deal of frustration playing my spines/dark scrapper, I scrapped his build and started all over again, ditching a lot of purples and the like in exchange for a more defensive focus.
Dark armour benefits so much from even a bit of defence. I worked to get 32.5% melee, with something like 25% smashing/lethal. I notice ranged opponents all the more, but what I really find sticking with me out of playing him now is how badly I want gauntlet and an area-effecting taunt to force opponents into melee range with me.
As for Weave, I remember in the old days before IO sets, I could tell the difference on my Fire tank when I turned Weave on/off w/only CJ to stack for defense. Yes, defense matters more as you approach cap, but even at the low end, every little bit helps. Esp, if you combine insps to always make purps--you can pretty much always have a +12.5% (or higher) buff to your defense. -
Fix Burn.
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I rolled my SS/SD brute specifically to take him to blue-side. Got a theme & back story/foundation for his "redemption" all worked out.
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I really hate arguing with you, because it's like picking on a really stubborn child. Please try not to take too much offense at that, but your information is generally wrong. I'm just gonna offer up some numbers which you can verify on your own, offer some analysis and hopefully leave it at that, because I see very little point in further debate.
Code:Some PBAoE numbers up there w/arcanatime factored in for DPAs. Formatting's messed up, but as you can follow, WA has horrible base numbers. I know a lot of ppl disregard DPA for AoE attacks, but I still think they're crucial. Still, if you like front loaded damage, you can just look at those too.Attack Dam Act Rech End DPE DPA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Wh. Axe 44.49 2.67 14 13 3.42 15.32 Wh. Hands 44.49 2.5 14 13 3.42 16.85 Wh. Mace 49.83 2.67 14 13 3.83 17.16 Typhoon's 50.72 2.27 12 11.856 4.28 20.22 Foot Stomp 63.17 2.1 20 18.512 3.41 28.15 Frozen Aura 63.2 2.1 20 18.512 3.41 28.16 Fire Sword Circle 83.2 2.67 20 18.512 4.49 28.65 Spin 108.7 2.5 9.2 9.152 11.88 41.17
Now, Axe has 2 cones, but Cleave has a 20deg arc (by comparison, Shadow Maul has a 45 deg arc). It's basically Headsplitter/GD. If you're wasting time trying to line up 3-4 mobs w/that, you're actually reducing your efficiency (2's not that bad if things line up right). Pendulum's much better, but only hits 5 mobs max, and with a shorter radius to boot. Mace has far superior cones, we all agree.
SS has no cones, but w/Rage and the silly radius of FS, it far outstrips Axe. 15' radius vs 8' btw. IM has a better cone and a much better PBAoE (plus, again, cold damage is less resisted--a minor point, but a factor nonetheless). FA isn't quite as good as FS w/only a 10' radius, but better than 8', and more damage too. Fire is damage king, ST & AoE. DB has a higher DPA PBAoE that recharges faster too. And did you really try to compare WA to Spin? I stuck those numbers in just for a laugh.
Don't wanna listen to me? Fine, Starsman did some very comprehensive tests for melee offensive capabilities. In his first batch, he concluded Mace was actually higher up than Ice Melee because he weighted cones too heavily. Currently, it's Fire, SS then IM (I argued for a while that IM > SS because of the cone, but was proven wrong--that's how powerful SS is w/just one PBAoE), but this was before ELM, which I'm guessing falls bet. SS & IM. Axe isn't remotely close to those top 4 AoE sets.
You can choose to believe these and other findings or not; if you're having fun, that's all that matters, yada, yada. If you're not into number crunching, by all means, go out and kill things at your pace and feel all godly about it. At the end of the day, I'm still not bashing Axe--it's a fun set with a lot of good things about it. To reiterate, it's flashy, hella cool, good ST damage, good mitigation and *okay* AoE damage for a tanker (kicks the crap out of EM, Stone & Dark). It is however not the AoE monster that you're describing and not by a long shot. -
Quote:I agree with this statement. I really do. I also know that I'd rather have my blasters throwing Fireballs than worrying about the odd peel-off. The thing is, even w/Taunt, you're going to have peels. I really like (or miss having) Taunt when I have a tight grouping going and see a boss head straight towards a blaster low on health. So I totally see where you're coming from.Originally Posted by Sarrate
It's kind of the "better to have and not need, than need and not have" deal. I hate wanting to get aggro and having no way of doing so.
Here's the thing though, we have a finite number of slots w/which to fill out powers, and if we take Taunt, we're not taking something else. One some of my builds, I take Taunt and can well afford to. Others are a lot tighter and taking Taunt would mean sacrificing... something. More offense, better mitigation, something. So is it worth the tradeoff? And to whom?
Of course the answer should be dependent on every individual situation, but many pro-Taunt arguers will say, "it's always worth the tradeoff," which I think is an incredibly arrogant stance to take. If you can do your job as a tank in 90~95% of the situations thrown at you w/o Taunt, what exactly is the problem? -
Getting in a bit late, and I love my SD/Axe tank, but don't kid yourself: Axe has pretty lousy AoE damage on its own. In fact, all the "Whirling" powers (Axe, Mace, Fists) have awful DPAs, and Whirling Axe is the worst of the lot. Pendulum does make things a bit nicer w/the wide arc (Cleave is nonexistant, really), but it doesn't totally make up for the suck of WA. Mace's cones are much better. Fire, ELM, SS, Ice & DB all have far superior AoE capabilities. Oh, and Axe is all lethal.
Now, before you think I'm bashing Axe, I'm not--Axe has good ST damage and mitigation through KD/KUs, plus plain looks cool. My SD/Axe is sporting the talsorian (vanguard) set and he does kick a lot of booty, but to be 100% honest, a lot of that booty is being kicked by SC. Even w/fully soaked AAO, WA does such crap damage that I treat it like an aggro & mitigation tool than anything that's going to wipe out masses of enemies. In fact, on 3 mobs or less, it's actually more effective to use Swoop+Gash+Chop on 3 separate mobs than use WA once on them all (4+ mobs, of course the AoE wins). That's just sad. -
One thing that hasn't been addressed into the ground, tho a few have touched on it is: why do people (mostly the OP) expect the tank to hold all the aggro? Is your blaster not capable of dealing w/a stray mob or three?
I *hate* it when I see a tank come chasing after some mob coming after a squishy of mine, knowing full well I can easily take care of it w/o any help. Sure, if he taunts it from range w/o moving from his clustered foes, more power to him (tho I'd rather he throw another attack), but any player should be able to manage his own aggro. If you can't don't blame the tank, or the controller, or the bubbler, or the "healorz"--look at your own gameplay first.
On a *good* team, esp a farm team, the tank's job should be to soak the alpha and set up a tight grouping for AoEs. The mobs should be cleared out in very short order and Taunt is almost never necessary. In fact, sitting & Taunting is usually an inefficient way of gathering aggro than your taunt aura + tab-switching/punchvoking.
I love tanker/blaster duos and play a lot of them from both ends. I don't care if they're 3-5x or 20x more effective than a tanker/tanker duo (or blaster/blaster duo), it's more than 2x and that's good enough for me. I *never* use Taunt in those situations, because it's never warranted. My blasters never need mobs taunted away either.
Mind you, Taunt is a very good tool, but frankly, I think most tanks would perform their jobs better if they didn't have it to lean on as a crutch, at least for the 1st 25 or so levels. Are there very specific situations where Taunt is needed/greatly desired? Sure, but they're more rare than the OP thinks. In fact, other than a low defender/controller MoSTF, I can't think of a situation blue-side that you absolutely *have* to have Taunt to get through easily. -
Please see my IM guide in my sig for my very detailed take on IM, which is to say, it's FINE.
I'd love an increase in GIS's damage to make its ST damage not so suck, but considering where it falls in the tanker ranks for AoE damage (4th) and control/mitigation (1st), I can live w/last place for ST damage. Cuz, you know, *something* has to be last. IM is very well balanced for the tanker AT, and quite frankly more effective than most. -
A popular non-Ill controllers AV/GMs solo tactic is to take the aggro himself w/a high def build. As such, Stony getting 2-shotted by the GM should never come into play.
Your ST damage comes from your ST hold/immob slotted for damage and epics (and secondaries like Storm). Again, this doesn't apply to all powersets, but pretty much anyone should be able to put together a respectable ST attack chain. Fire & Ill have the easiest time of soloing AV/GMs, but any powerset should be able to do it. -
Not for farming, but I recently made a duo w/a RL friend for my first foray into red-side in over a year. Running a SS/SD w/my friend's Son/Kin corr. Pretty sick duo and I don't even have FS (nor he his FS) yet.
I made a thread asking which would be better for AoE goodness, SS/SD or ELA/SD and it was unanimous for SS/SD.